informal learning reflections

It was late. We were driving home after an evening out. I was starring blankly out the car window when a light caught the corner of my eye. It quickly received my immediate attention.

“What is that?” I kept thinking silently.

As we drove closer this light took on a new form.

“Where did that rabbit come from?” I asked my husband who was driving the car.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDTtP-eg1ek. I wonder if we are any of those red dots?

My husband looked perplexed but not surprised. This is us after all. Asking each other weird unexpected questions is fairly normal.

Thankfully his eyes were not wandering where they shouldn’t have been; they were on the road ahead. Sadly this meant he was completely unaware of this huge rabbit illuminated on the side of a building on the street we were driving down.

I became enthralled by this incredibly cute rabbit and what it was doing. I thought about one of my work colleagues who has two pet rabbits, Lola and Theo, and I wished she was here to share this moment.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDTtP-eg1ek

I kept watching. I couldn’t understand why I had never noticed this rabbit before. “How could I have missed this?” I asked myself.

As we drove down the street the rabbit grew bigger and bigger. This was fun. I then noticed lots of people gathered at street level by the wall of the building that the rabbit was illuminated on. Part of the road was blocked. There were also signs up and lots of heavy duty lighting equipment in use. I also became aware of the sound of a helicopter and everything suddenly fell into place.

“They’re filming something!” I said out loud; having film crews in our midst is something Wellingtonians have grown accustomed to over the years.

“I wonder what they’re filming?” was my last thought about this whole experience, that is until earlier this week when I read an item at work that appeared in our staff daily notices.

It turns out that the rabbit was a part of an international film shoot for two commercials promoting a US cellphone network. These commercials are now screening on US television. The best part is that the production contracted approximately 420 local residents as a part of the filming. Oh, how I wish I had been one of them. Even the cold, wet weather wouldn’t have taken away the fun of what they were doing.

Thanks to YouTube we can all enjoy the magic created here in Wellington on those two days and three nights back in June. I love the creativity and the energy of these commercials. I also love that our City Council supports this kind of creativity instead of stifling it.

The rabbit has unfortunately gone as have the tentacles, bubbles, fish, jellyfish and all the sounds of joy and busyness that this film shoot created. I feel excited that this was momentarily a part of my life. Thanks to my memories I am able to connect the dots, make sense of what I saw, and smile at the joy of what was produced. Our quiet drive home was actually so much more than even I realised.